Everything We Know About the Potential ‘Community’ Movie

Will the promise of six seasons and a movie ever come to fruition? That’s the question Communityfans have been asking for years, especially since Season 6 wrapped up in 2015. Over three years later, what’s the status of the Community movie? Could a return to Greendale be streets ahead of us?

Let’s take a look at what we know about the potential Community movie and how likely it seems at this point.

A movie had been discussed as early as 2014

Community | Sony Pictures Television

As far back as 2014, Zack Van Amburg, the programming president of Sony Pictures Television, outright said that there had been preliminary conversations about the Community movie, which would fulfill the #SixSeasonsAndAMovie prophecy laid out in Season 2.

“I’d be lying if I told you that we have not had some very early and preliminary conversations that are very exciting about what a potential movie could be and who might direct it,” he said. “It’s early but it’s completely in our thought process.”

During Season 6, there was talk of a movie as the next step

Community | Yahoo

The sixth season of Community aired on Yahoo Screen after NBC canceled the show. It wasn’t entirely clear when the sixth season started airing whether the next step might be a movie or whether a seventh season could happen.

The former seemed more likely, and creator Dan Harmon joked when Season 6 was on the air that Yahoo seemed naive enough to finance the movie despite the show being low-rated. On a more serious note, Joel McHale said as Season 6 was coming to an end that he thought a movie would happen.

When Season 6 ended, Yahoo told fans to stay tuned about what might happen next with Community. The streaming service didn’t end up ordering Season 7, but Harmon said it was because the actors were so busy.

Instead, Harmon told TV Line that the plan was to “wait a little bit, let [the cast] explore their awesome careers, and then we get together for an incredible movie.”

Yahoo Screen shut down the following year

Community | Sony Pictures Television

After Yahoo didn’t order Season 7 or a movie, fans began to assume the show was canceled, but Yahoo came out and said that it was “continuing to discuss future opportunities for Community.” So it seemed that the movie could potentially end up at Yahoo after a few years. For now, we’d just have to wait.

But then in 2016, Yahoo completely shut down its streaming service, declaring a $42 million write-down, according to Variety.

This now made the Community movie’s future a lot more uncertain, as it no longer had as clear of a home, although later that year, Harmon said in an interview with Larry King that he was sure the film would still happen.

Harmon teased in 2017 that there might be an opportunity to make the movie

Dan Harmon | Ethan Miller/Getty Images

In the summer of 2017, Harmon teased that he was actually beginning to work on getting the Community movie off the ground, teasing that a director was helping him out.

“I recently had a conversation with a director that’s the kind of guy whose weight in the industry could make that happen,” he said. “For the first time in a long time, I’m actually putting thought into that again. There might be an opportunity at hand if I can actually think of what I would do.”

He later said that he was working with director Justin Lin to make the movie happen. In addition to directing the first paintball episode of Community, Lin also directed Star Trek Beyond and three of the Fast & Furious movies, so it’s definitely true that he has clout in the industry.

Most of the actors are interested, but it’s unclear if Donald Glover would do it

Community | NBC

Most of the members of the Community cast are fairly busy, especially Alison Brie and Donald Glover, both of whom are currently starring in his TV shows. So who would come back for this movie?

But Glover is a busy man, balancing his work as creator and star of Atlanta with a movie and music career. So right now, getting Glover back seems to be the movie’s biggest challenge. Speaking of busy men, Dan Harmon, the creator of Community who would almost certainly write the movie, just committed to 70 episodes of his show Rick and Morty. It’s not impossible that he will write the movie while still working on Rick and Morty, but this news was definitely another setback for Community fans.

Recently, McHale wasn’t sure it would happen anytime soon

Community | Yahoo!

For some time there, there was a sense that the Community movie could happen sooner rather than later. But now, with people like Harmon and Glover only getting busier, its future is unclear.

This summer, for instance, McHale has repeatedly expressed skepticism that the movie will happen anytime soon, if at all. There was even a sketch on his Netflix show The Joel McHale Show in which Paul Feig said that the movie had been canceled.

“I think there’s a world where it happens,” McHale told The USA Today. “But Dan [Harmon] just got picked up for 70 episodes of Rick and Morty, so he’s going to be busy for a long time. And everyone else has stuff going on. If a script got written and there was actual money to make it, then it could go. But at this point, Paul Feig’s right.”